Today I took the plunge, and booked my plane flight to Sri Lanka. I'm leaving NZ on May 26th to begin in earnest a life of homelessness.

To describe the feeling just before hitting that button, it was like standing at the door of a plane ready to jump out. You know you've got the parachute and your emergency-chute, it's all packed, secured, you checked it thrice, but all the same there's that last minute wish to stay with what you know - something to stand on. For me that something to stand on was the life I have led over the past 19 and a bit years, in a southern New Zealand town called Dunedin, where you run into people you know on the street, the Winters are cold and romantic, the Summers lazy and warm, and nothing really changes.

Of course that middle class comfort, replete with the sensual pleasures is a mere illusion, disguising the inevitable disease, decay and death that must befall us all, and yet there was a hesitation, a willingness to continue this life of grand procrastination. There was a willingness to go down with the ship, a long with all those that I love.

But in the end that's all it is, a great deception. No comfort. No safety.

It's time to do what should be done. It's time to put forth effort and steer this raft to the farther shore.

mettaJack

Last edited by BlackBird on Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Anumodana in your kusula cetana! So attha-laddho sukhitoViru.lho buddha-saasaneArogo sukhito hohiSaha sabbehi ñaatibhi.May he gain his aims, be happy,and flourish in the Buddha's teachings.May you, together with all your relatives,be happy and free from disease.

Which monastery are you planning to go to? Have you had contact with any particular one? How long can you legally enter Sri Lanka for? Have you been learning a little Sinhalese?

mettaChris

Last edited by cooran on Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

++++++++++++++++This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

There is freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning. If there were not this freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning, then escape from that which is birth, becoming, making, conditioning, would not be known here. -- Ud 80

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine.People live in one another’s shelter.

Chris wrote:Which monastery are you planning to go to? Have you had contact with any particular one? How long can you legally enter Sri Lanka for? Have you been learning a ittle Sinhalese?

mettaChris

Hi Chris

A couple of friends from Sri Lanka have been teaching me a bit of Sinhala, although I must admit I haven't been putting in enough effort into this department.

When I arrive in Sri Lanka there are three monasteries I would like to stay at to begin with:- Na Uyana.- Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya (for the Rains retreat, have talked it over with Ven. Dhammajiva Thero).- Potgulgala (Where Ven. K. Nyanananda thero resides).

As a kiwi, one gets a month visa-free on the house, however the Sri Lankan consulate in Wellington tell me it's easy to apply for a meditation visa once in the country.

mettaJack

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

keep in touch when you go! which plan did you opt for? out of curiosity!Sri Lanka did crop into my mind a couple of times, but unfortunately there is something I must do before making any move have you contacted anywhere... probably loads more questions to ask and answer!

BlackBird wrote:Today I took the plunge, and booked my plane flight to Sri Lanka. I'm leaving NZ on May 26th to begin in earnest a life of homelessness.

To describe the feeling just before hitting that button, it was like standing at the door of a plane ready to jump out. You know you've got the parachute and your emergency-chute, it's all packed, secured, you checked it thrice, but all the same there's that last minute wish to stay with what you know - something to stand on. For me that something to stand on was the life I have led over the past 19 and a bit years, in a southern New Zealand town called Dunedin, where you run into people you know on the street, the Winters are cold and romantic, the Summers lazy and warm, and nothing really changes.

Of course that middle class comfort, replete with the sensual pleasures is a mere illusion, disguising the inevitable disease, decay and death that must befall us all, and yet there was a hesitation, a willingness to continue this life of grand procrastination. There was a willingness to go down with the ship, a long with all those that I love.

But in the end that's all it is, a great deception. No comfort. No safety.

It's time to do what should be done. It's time to put forth effort and steer this raft to the farther shore.

mettaJack

This offering maybe right, or wrong, but it is one, the other, both, or neither!Blog,-Some Suttas Translated,Ajahn Chah."Others will misconstrue reality due to their personal perspectives, doggedly holding onto and not easily discarding them; We shall not misconstrue reality due to our own personal perspectives, nor doggedly holding onto them, but will discard them easily. This effacement shall be done."

I hope everything goes well for you in Sri Lanka. I really understand where you are coming from, being a dissatisfied young middle class man, thinking a lot about living the monastic life. Procrastination is a hindrance I am all too familiar with, therefore your decisive action is very inspiring to me!

May your path to Liberation be a fast and happy one.

With Metta,

Guy

Four types of letting go:

1) Giving; expecting nothing back in return2) Throwing things away3) Contentment; wanting to be here, not wanting to be anywhere else4) "Teflon Mind"; having a mind which doesn't accumulate things

"When we transcend one level of truth, the new level becomes what is true for us. The previous one is now false. What one experiences may not be what is experienced by the world in general, but that may well be truer. (Ven. Nanananda)

“I hope, Anuruddha, that you are all living in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes.” (MN 31)

My recently moved Blog, containing some of my writings on the Buddha Dhamma, as well as a number of translations from classical Buddhist texts and modern authors, liturgy, etc.: Huifeng's Prajnacara Blog.

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah

Hi Jack. Admire your aspirations. Don't mean to throw a bucket of cold water on your head, but, well, Ok please allow me to throw a bucket or two. I've been traveling on and off since I was your age, and if I may offer one bit of advice it would be: make sure you know what you are getting into!I left the US three days after high school and spent over a year bicycling/hitchhiking/working odd jobs around Europe/Mid-east and (after some college) another year living an working in Greece and Norway before even attempting Asia. Even after all that, at times Asia kicked my ass! Spent 6 months in India--it was fascinating but never easy. It's been almost 20 years and I've spent most of the last 7 in Asia and even now I'm aware of the fact that a new country can be a challenge. So as Tilt said be careful.

Is there a place to study in lovely NZ? Maybe best to start there.

If you are determined to go:Forget about learning Sinhala. There is no possible way you'll master it in the time you have, and anyway there should be plenty of English speakers available to you. (This is based on my time in India; I haven't been to SL).Get an extended stay Visa before you leave. Bring lots of mosquito repellant.Good Luck and don't go. Stay where you are. You're doing fine.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis

Try to maintain your upekkha, which from your other posts I think you have in copious amounts , and u'll do fine wherever you go. Of course planning and preparation is also important, so do all you can to be well-prepared.

If we're going into advice mode, the advice I would give is to not expect anywhere or anyone to be perfect.

I think that this is especially important if you eventually decide to ordain. I'm not sure if you read Kevin's (he had several different screen names including Alexander) posts on E-Sangha about his ordination, and disrobing, in Thailand (a year ago?). I don't know him at all, but my impression was that he really, really, wanted to be somewhere where all the monks had perfect sila, perfect (corresponding with his opinion) view of the Dhamma, and perfect everything else. That's impossible.

My love and good wishes go with you Jack!May you be successful in your noble endeavours!metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725